30 November 2010 –  As we previously reported (but which we reluctantly have not continually followed) over the summer an ABA committee recommended that the ABA consider the accreditation of law schools outside U.S. borders.  Must be an issue because there are just not enough lawyers and too many legal jobs unfilled, right?

The ABA had solicited comments (the comment period closed October 15th) and the designated committee takes its vote on December 4, 2010.  But … comments may still be accepted and if you want to have your say email legaled@staff.abanet.org and title them “Foreign Law Schools.”

The pros/cons were outlined by the ABA (for a link click here)  but let’s focus on the cons:

(1) This development could result in enlarging practice opportunities for foreign lawyers in the United States because graduates of foreign ABA approved schools then would be eligible to sit for a bar exam without any reciprocity or parallel opportunities provided by other countries for U.S. lawyers.

(2) If the foreign school is government-sponsored, political difficulties could arise if the Council failed to approve an application for accreditation and, depending on the issues presented, this could create problems or pressures both within the larger ABA and potentially with the Department of State.

(3) Foreign students who never spend any time studying in the United States will not have the benefit of the acculturation process that naturally occurs when study is accomplished here and that provides context for understanding the development of U.S. law and professional ethics.

Fo our other coverage of this issue click here.

There is a very good legal blog brought to our attention by Legal Blog Watch called Balkinization.  Lots of great posts on the law and the legal profession.

Recently they ran a story on the growing legion of Scambloggers who want to keep you from going to law school.  And they profiled and quoted none other but St. Johns University School of Law Professor Brian Tamanaha,  the Chief Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo Professor of Law, as well as a former Interim dean of the School of Law in 1998-1999.  He wrote about the need to ”wake up to the casualties of our enterprise.”  As regards the Scambloggers he wrote:

It’s grim reading. The observations are raw, bitter, and filled with despair. It is easier to avert our eyes and carry on with our pursuits. But please, take a few moments and force yourself to look at Third Tier Reality, Esq. Never, Exposing the Law School Scam, Jobless Juris Doctor, Temporary Attorney: The Sweatshop Edition, and linked sites. Read the posts and the comments. These sites are proliferating, with thousands of hits.

Look past the occasional vulgarity and disgusting pictures. Don’t dismiss the posters as whiners. To a person they accept responsibility for their poor decisions. But they make a strong case that something is deeply wrong with law schools.

For the full post from Legal Blog Watch click here.

14 November 2009

This past Thursday the New York Times profiled a new research paper entitled Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be…Lawyers that said “Law school is a bad investment”.

The paper tries to measure the return on investment in a law school education, using three prototypical students (the “Also Ran,” the “Solid Performer” and the “Hot Prospect”) and the results are somewhat disheartening, especially considering the surging interest in law school during this tough job market.

As the New York Times article points out, attempts to calculate the return on investment of a given degree are difficult.  And there is also the matter of nonmonetary returns from higher education.  Neither the new research paper on law school R.O.I. nor most of the other related studies try to quantify the psychic rewards of additional social prestige, expanding one’s mind, being better equipped to make the world a better place, and so on, that come from earning a J.D.  And as we have reported, many Posse List members have used their law education/their law training to move on to other pursuits, other fields.  But we thought the information would be interesting and of use to our readers.

For the New York Times article click here.

For the full research paper click here.

And for an analysis of the research paper from the TaxProf blog with some more links click here.

The job market for lawyers, hit hard by the recession, seems to reach new lows every day. But that has not done much to discourage the thousands who are lining up to become the next generation of attorneys.

In seeming defiance of logic, many law schools are surging in popularity. At Washington and Lee University in Virginia, for example, law-school applications are up 29% this year over 2008, while Yale Law School and the University of Texas School of Law both enjoyed an 8% increase in applications. Nationwide, the total number of applicants is up by 2% over last year, with the deadline to submit applications having passed at most schools.

For full article click here.